


Valentine

by spinner33



Series: CM - Close to Canon [27]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Accidentally Outted, F/M, M/M, The Course of True Love Never Runs Smooth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 19:12:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5303381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinner33/pseuds/spinner33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotch makes a valentine request of Reid, and Evil Cupid answers the request, in a round-about way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Spencer was the first to wake up. Well, in actuality, he hadn’t gone to sleep yet. From his perch on the settee, Reid had watched Aaron sleeping. Sprawled all over their bed, Aaron had spent the night snoring, grumbling, rolling over several times, pushing pillows and blankets off onto the floor, and nearly upsetting one of the table lamps. Reid had decided that crawling in bed beside him might be like sleeping in the washing machine. So Spencer decided to doze on the settee instead.

The coffee machine beeped downstairs – it must be six o’ clock. Reid set down his book, tiptoed over to the bed, and carefully put a kiss on top of Hotch’s wild hair. Currently that was the only part of him that was visible. Aaron snorted and jumped awake at the slightest touch.

“Morning,” Spencer said cheerfully. Hotch grumbled and frowned. He pushed all the covers away from his face, flopped over on his back, and fell to sleep again, mouth open.

Reid went downstairs and made two mugs of coffee, carrying them both back upstairs. Jack’s door was ajar. The boy jumped out of bed and raced around the banister, across the landing. He threw a big hug around Spencer’s legs, and hurried into their bedroom. Jack jumped onto the bed, and straddled Hotch’s prone body. He picked up a pillow, and smacked Hotch with it several times.

Tired red eyes opened. Hotch stared at Jack, annoyed yet amused as well.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” Jack screamed, hugging his dad. Before Hotch could reply, Jack leapt out of the bed. He snagged Reid’s knees for another hug. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” he shouted again before he hurried downstairs.

Hotch lay on the bed with his eyes wide open now, still frowning. Reid carefully approached and offered him a mug of coffee.

“Bad night?” Spencer worried. Hotch grumbled and sipped from the mug. He put an arm around Reid’s hips and drew him close. “I was going to cook a special dinner for you tonight. I must confess, I have no idea what to get you for a gift though. I’m sorta new at this kind of thing. So I will take the direct approach. What would you like? Anything you want is yours.”

Hotch looked up at him and cocked a hungry, wicked smile.

“You. On your knees. Gasping, panting. Wearing something very sheer,” he rasped, nosing through clothes to kiss Spencer’s navel and to breathe against his bare skin.

“Oh,” Reid murmured, trembling. “I’ll see what I can do. All I wanted was some romantic candlelight.”

“Hmm,” Hotch replied, slurping down more coffee and waiting for his higher functions to come back online.


	2. Chapter 2

Clearly Cupid was not on their side as far as romantic plans were concerned. Either that, or Cupid had an evil sense of humor. By eight they were at Quantico. By ten they were working an urgent new case—an unsub in Omaha had robbed a local army/navy surplus store, and was wreaking havoc on the local populace. He had seriously-injured the entire staff at the local parole board with the exception of his estranged girlfriend. She had been lucky enough to escape because she was stuck in traffic and had not reached work.

Now he was meticulously hunting down everyone with any connection to Melody, Sweet Melody, as he was referring to her in the threatening phone messages he was leaving every time he attacked another person. Her family was in Minneapolis, so they were probably safe, but in an effort to be super-cautious, the Minneapolis police had been notified and were on their way to Melody’s family’s home.

By one, the BAU team was in Omaha. They had a name for their unsub – Joseph Murphy. They met with Melody Mosher, Sweet Melody, at the police station. The local law enforcement officers had the place bound up so tight that they had even insisted on frisking the BAU team when they arrived.

“Who is this guy, the Terminator?” Morgan asked.

“Ex-army,” the sheriff had replied, and by that, he clearly meant ‘yes’. “Joe Murphy has been in and out of trouble since he was weaned. He served part of a tour in Iraq…”

“Ear-rock,” Reid corrected softly. The sheriff patently ignored him, kept going.

“The army discharged him because they weren’t able to control him either. He’s got a brother in Leavenworth, a sister in Decatur. His dad pulled a shotgun on the previous sheriff more times than I can count. The old man went down in a blazing gun battle about five years ago. I’m telling you—they are all crazy as bedbugs.”

“Maybe we can get his mother to talk sense to him,” Prentiss suggested, straightening her jacket and looking hopefully at Hotch. The sheriff was already shaking his head.

“His momma’s in Bedford Hills, up in New York.”

“Is there anyone that Joe trusts that we could get to talk to him, calm him down?” JJ asked.

“Melody,” the sheriff nodded.

“But she’s refused to get anywhere near him,” a deputy interjected, giving Hotch back both his handguns.

“Smart move,” Prentiss said.

“You said he’s been in and out of trouble a lot. Spent time in prison. What about his parole officer?” Hotch asked.

The sheriff gave a wry grin. “That would be Melody.”

“Oh joy,” Reid murmured dryly, giving a faint smirk. The sheriff gave him a dirty look, to which Reid shrugged mildly. Hotch was fighting with a smile but would never have admitted to it.

“Any idea how to proceed on this one?” Rossi asked Hotch. Aaron nodded.

“We’ll map out where he’s already struck, talk to Melody, try to determine where he’s likely to strike next.”

“Where might we find Sweet Melody?” Morgan wondered.

“I got her in lock-up. Seemed the safest place for her to be,” the sheriff motioned back over one shoulder with his thumb, towards the door that led to the cells.

“Lead the way,” Prentiss requested. She and JJ followed the deputy as the sheriff led Rossi, Reid, Hotch, and Morgan to a small staging room.

Reid made quick work of plotting the locations of each attack on the map of Omaha. All the violence had been contained within West Omaha. He glanced back over his shoulder now and again to find that the other three were all watching him with beady eyes. It was very disconcerting.

“I don’t think we’ve got to draw a picture with this one,” Morgan was commenting to Hotch. Rossi nodded along.

“He’s going to get tired of dancing around the obvious, won’t he?” Rossi wondered.

“Joe Murphy is angry at Melody, and he’s going after the people she cares about. He can’t kill her family because they’re out of state. So he injured her co-workers, and then killed her next door neighbors on both sides. Killed four people in the Starbucks where she goes for her morning coffee,” Reid counted off, touching all the dots on the map as he spoke.

“Is he going to work his way through her day until he gets to her?” Hotch shrugged.

“He’s probably staking out the place where she grabs lunch,” Morgan said quietly. “The best way to end this quickly is to tell Joe right where Melody is, and tell him she is willing to talk,” Morgan said. Reid nodded in agreement.

“That would certainly save a lot of bloodshed and violence,” Reid said.

“All we have to do is get Melody to cooperate with the plan,” Rossi smirked.

As Prentiss and JJ came back from the cell block, it was clear from their faces that Melody wasn’t going to have any part of their silly plan. So Hotch decided to go talk to her, and he took Reid along with him.


	3. Chapter 3

The cell confinement area was not exactly large or accommodating. It was a long hallway with six cells. A door at one end allowed entrance. A door at the other end was the emergency exit. There were high windows in each cell. There was warmth and light and green walls and gray bars everywhere.

There was a rough-looking, leather-clad biker dude in the first cell. He was sitting on his bunk, reading a magazine. He looked up hopefully as they went by, but then scowled and ignored them. Maybe he had been hoping that Prentiss and JJ were coming back.

Melody was in the second cell. She was surrounded by files and paperwork, and piles of used tissues she had been crying into.

“Melody Mosher?” Hotch asked. The petite blonde nodded, folding her tiny mouth together in an effort to keep from crying again.

“I’m so sorry you had to come all the way out here for this,” she said, fretting shyly with the buttons on her shirt. She swung her feet back and forth like a little girl in big trouble.

Reid tilted his head and stared at her, thinking she was better suited for standing in front of a classroom full of adoring children instead of riding herd on a bunch of hardened, dangerous criminals. One glance at Hotch confirmed that his boss was thinking the very same thing. Did that make the both of them backwards chauvinist cavemen?

“I’m Agent Hotchner. This is Dr. Reid. Miss Mosher, can you think of any reason why Joseph Murphy is doing what he’s doing?” Hotch asked.

“I told him we couldn’t see each other any more.”

“How long have you been seeing each other?” Aaron asked.

“Professionally, I’ve been his parole officer for nearly two years.”

“Romantically then?” Reid asked, pulling the cell open and stepping inside with her. Reid took off his sweater and gave it to Melody because she was shivering. She slipped it around her shoulders and whispered her thanks. Somehow this act of kindness made Reid feel even more sheepish about his concern over her career choice. He picked up several folders and sat down in a small chair. Hotch leaned against the outside of the cell against the bars.

“About a year,” she shrugged. “It was irresponsible of me, developing feelings for one of my case files, but there’s something about Joe that said he needed me. I know he’s a good man, in spite of these things he’s done. He doesn’t know how to express himself properly. He’s never been taught how to deal with his emotions. I thought I could reach him. I thought I could help him. The sheriff probably told you all about Joe's family.”

“Yes.”

“Then you know what I’m talking about,” Melody said.

“There’s a sizeable difference between not knowing how to express yourself and systematically hunting down everyone in your estranged girlfriend’s life,” Reid pointed out as delicately as possible.

“I know there is,” Melody sobbed.

“We think if you agreed to talk to him that we can end this peacefully,” Hotch said. Reid looked up at him, hiding the doubt that he felt. Situations like this rarely ended peacefully. They usually ended with the offender killing himself, his target, and as much of the local police force as humanly possible. What about this situation made Hotch think things would be different? Wishful thinking?

“If I may ask, why did you decide to call things off with Joe?” Reid wondered.

Melody stared down at her hands and her lap full of tissues, and blushed such a color of crimson that a verbal answer wasn’t necessary.

“How far along are you?” Hotch asked. The hardened criminal in the first cell tried to poke his head through the bars. He gasped loudly and exclaimed in surprise.

“MELODY! You got yourself pregnant by Joe?!”

“Rick? Will you mind your own business, please?” Melody called out. Because of the familiar tone they had taken with each other, Reid had to assume that this guy was also one of her case files.

“You ought to have known better than to get mixed up in a mess like that in the first place, and now, with a baby on the way?! If I was you, I’d get the hell out of Dodge before Joe finds out. Because you know how he’s going to react.”

“Rick,” Hotch called out. “Zip it.”

“How is Joe going to react when he finds out?” Spencer asked Melody.

“He’s gonna wanna marry her! I don’t know about where you all are from, but out here, a man does the right by the one he loves.”

“RICK!” they all three shouted at once.

“Shut the fuck up,” Hotch added angrily. Rick gifted Hotch with a middle finger salute through the bars before he prowled over to the other half of his cell.

“You don’t want to marry Joe?” Reid asked Melody. “That’s why you broke off your romantic relationship?”

“It’s not a matter of wanting to marry Joe. Of course I do! I love Joe. Of course I want to marry him. But if I marry him, I will be admitting to our relationship, and I will lose my job. What are we supposed to do then? He can’t hold a job down to save his life. How are we going to live? I can’t work as a parole officer if my boss is afraid I’m going to be sleeping with my case files. I may not even have a boss any more, not after this morning, not after Joe….” Melody’s big blue eyes welled up and spilled over. “I can’t do this. As much as I love Joe, as much as I want to marry him, there ain’t no good gonna come out of this situation, and we all know that. Don’t we? Stupid Cupid,” she cried, drying her face. Reid handed her another tissue.


	4. Chapter 4

As Reid was giving Melody a tissue, all Hell broke loose outside the cell confinement area in the main area of the police station. Gunfire erupted. Explosions blew. Warning claxons blared. The lights shut off. Dirt and dust and debris shook loose from everywhere.

Rick got under his bunk. Hotch drew his gun and scanned around by the light from the high windows. Reid helped Melody to her feet, pushed her case files aside, stepped around all the used tissues, and kept her close to his side.

There was another explosion, and shouting, and the sound of more gunfire. Hotch kept his gun aimed at the door to the cell confinement area. The lock popped, and Morgan came through, covered in dust and with a trickle of blood coming from the cut above his left ear.

Before Morgan could say one word, the door at other end of the hall was blown off its hinges, and another form stepped through. He was wielding a .9mm, and he was angry, very angry. He was the biggest, angriest thing they had seen in some time, in fact.

Reid backed Melody up against the wall and covered her with his body, hands out to both sides. He was flattening Melody back against the wall and protecting every inch of her that he could cover. He faced Joseph Murphy and gave him determined look. Murphy readily accepted the challenge and aimed his gun at Reid.

“Don’t do this, Murphy!” Hotch shouted, leveling his gun at the criminal.

“Don’t be an idiot!” Morgan shouted, leveling his gun as well. 

“I want to talk to Melody!” Joe howled.

“Put down your gun,” Reid said slowly. Melody was peering around Reid’s side.

“Joe, put down the gun. We can talk. You don't have to do this,” Mosher soothed, sounding motherly and loving.

“I want to talk alone,” Joe sniveled, ready to buckle. 

“Put down the gun,” Hotch growled.

“Murphy, don’t be a dickhead!” Rick exclaimed, emerging from under his bunk. “She’s pregnant, you idiot! You gonna kill your own baby?”

Later reconstructions would determine that when Joe Murphy’s defenses were down, when he stopped to say, “Ba…..baby?”, that was when Aaron Hotchner fired at Joe’s hand which was holding the .9 mm gun. Also in that exact second, Derek Morgan fired at the very same hand holding the same .9 mm. One bullet clipped the gun itself, moving it aside a fraction of an inch. The other clipped Joe’s hand and took off a couple fingers (alas, not his trigger finger). The surprise of having his gun jerked aside and losing two fingers made Joe squeeze his hand in reflex.

It was that fraction of an inch which the gun had been moved which altered the trajectory of the bullets that were fired, and altered the areas which the bullets had struck, which ultimately saved Dr. Spencer Reid’s life. Not that that was immediately evident in all the blood and screaming and noise.

Hotch heard Murphy’s gun firing. He saw blood blossom across Reid’s white shirt, across his chest, across his left arm. Bullets dashed up the wall, taking out chucks of concrete and bouncing off the bars to whip around again. Hotch screamed and leapt forward, fearing the absolute worst. Some of the blood was indeed Reid's blood. Luckily though, most of the blood on Reid’s chest had been cast-off blood from Joe Murphy.

Morgan leapt forward and grabbed Joe, pinning the wounded, bleeding suspect to the ground. Derek pulled both of Murphy’s arms behind the suspect’s back, and that was when Morgan saw that Joe was missing his ring finger and his pinky off his right hand.

Inside the cell confinement area, it was complete chaos. Hotch was clutching Reid’s shoulders with both hands, his face as white as Reid’s shirt had once been. Reid was kneeling on the ground, holding his left arm with his right hand, panting hard, eyes wide, mouth open as he gasped in pain. His eyes were locked with Hotch's.

Melody shrieked and clambered over both Hotch and Reid to get to Joe and make sure he was okay. She was holding his hand to stop the flow of blood from the place where his missing fingers had once been.

Reid was stammering syllables. “Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.” 

Hotch fell to his knees and babbled as well. “Oh my god. Are you okay? Tell me you're okay!”

It was then that the fire alarms sounded, quite belatedly. The smoke from the destruction in the outer office area was reaching the cell block, and the sprinkler system kicked in. The hallway and the cells were suddenly drenched in a tiny tempest of water droplets.

Rick began to howl in pain, and everyone looked in his direction, thinking at first that the water had scared or injured him. He was having a delayed reaction. Rick had caught one of the ricocheting bullets in the right arm, and was holding himself in pain. He hadn’t felt the pain until he had looked down and seen the blood. His panic was not unwarranted. It was an awful amount of blood.

Morgan told Melody to go check on Rick, and he kept a firm grip on Joe, and on his wounded hand. Hotch didn’t leave Reid’s side. He yanked Spencer’s wet, sheer shirt open and ran his hands over every inch of Reid’s chest to make sure he was all right. Reid had been grazed on the shoulder and on the bicep, which was bad enough. Once the ambulances arrived, Hotch made Reid lie down on the ambulance gurney so the EMTs could check him over.

Morgan was putting Joe into the back of another ambulance under the careful gaze of several state troopers. The troopers had been called in because the Omaha police station had been utterly devastated. Clearly those who trained Joe in the creation and use of explosive devices in Iraq during his tour of duty in the army had been successful teachers! It was a miracle that no one was seriously hurt. A true miracle.

To no one’s surprise, Melody Mosher got into the back of the ambulance with Joe Murphy, and stayed close by his side. Joe was weeping with joy at being near her again.

“Idiots,” Emily Prentiss decided. She was holding a bandage to her bruised and bloodied nose, and watching an EMT dress the wound on her forearm where she had been grazed by bullets and debris.

“They deserve each other,” JJ agreed, nursing her left arm and her skinned knee, and lamenting the loss of one of her shoes in the rubble. Prentiss had tackled JJ and dragged her bodily out of the line of fire, so really, shoes? This was not the time to worry about shoes.

“Love conquers all,” Rossi beamed, leaning on the side of the state troopers’ vehicle and brushing the dust and dirt off his jacket.

“Can we go home now?” Morgan growled, nursing the cut above his ear and giving the EMT a dirty look when she tried to touch him. He glanced back towards the ambulance where the blood-splattered Dr. Reid was stretched out on a gurney. Hotch had insisted he stay down and let the EMTs check him over, again. Aaron simply could not believe that Spencer had sustained nothing more than two bullet grazes after facing down an unsub with a .9 mm at practically point-blank range.

Media was already swarming the area. This was probably the most exciting thing to happen in Omaha for some time. A reporter hovered between the two open doors. He wielded a camera and managed to take a couple pictures before Hotch slammed the doors in his face.

“Is he going to be okay?” Rossi asked Morgan.

“It looks worse than it is. Murphy winged him,” Derek replied. “A few stitches in his shoulder, and Reid will be good as new.”

“I meant Hotch,” Dave grinned.

“That might take more than stitches,” Morgan grinned back.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, they were back in Quantico. When the BAU team stepped off the elevators in the morning, Assistant Director Strauss was standing there waiting. She did not look happy. So what else was new?

“Agent Hotchner. Dr. Reid. In my office. Now.”

Strauss stomped away, and the team exchanged curious looks. Hotch and Reid followed her. Garcia hurried up to the other team members and flashed the Omaha World Herald at them.

Everyone inhaled sharply. Rossi actually had to sit down on the nearest desk.

“Sit,” Strauss barked, closing her office door. Hotch took one chair, and Reid took the other. Strauss snatched a newspaper off her desk and turned around to hand it to Hotch.

_ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE!!_

The headline leapt off at them, but that was nothing compared to impact the main page photo had. It was Reid in the ambulance, lying on the gurney. Hotch was leaning over him. They were kissing.

“Please tell me that Dr. Reid was having trouble breathing, and you were giving him mouth-to-mouth,” Erin rasped, sitting down at her desk and piling her fingers in front of herself. She studied Hotch evenly.

“Um…”Aaron murmured. Reid was speechless too, but not for the same reason.

“Look, gentlemen. You are both more than familiar with the rules against fraternization between agents. I am willing to work with you about the necessary transfers. We can get this done today. No muss, no fuss.”

“Sioux City, Iowa. 1977,” Reid said. Strauss took a deep breath, and her eyes got wide. “It might interest you to know that I have spent a good deal of time in the archives. Old reports make for very interesting reading.”

“This is not about me, Dr. Reid! What you two did was dangerous. It was careless. It was irresponsible,” Strauss gasped, pointing to the paper that Hotch held. For his part, Hotch was staring at Reid. What had happened in Sioux City, Iowa in 1977 to make Strauss look so worried?

“Ma’am, if I could just…” Hotch began.

“No, Agent Hotchner. You will listen. I will speak. What you two do in your personal lives is up to you, and I am not making judgments. But when you are on a case, you represent this Bureau, and you will act accordingly.”

“Perhaps you’d like to talk about how you represented the Bureau in Oklahoma City, 1978?” Reid put the words out there like a high face card. He knew what kind of hand he held, apparently. Strauss actually turned green. It took her several seconds to be able to muster a reply.

“Very well. I can see where this conversation is going to go. I can turn a blind eye, once. Only once. But understand this, both of you. If this ever happens again, if you are ever seen in public together doing THIS again, I will have no choice but to transfer Dr. Reid to a different department. Is that clear, gentlemen?” Strauss breathed at them.

“Yes, ma’am,” Hotch murmured. He glanced at Reid and waited for him to acquiesce to Strauss as well. Spencer was smiling. There was a rebellious gleam in his hazel eyes. Hotch felt a cold prickle rush over his skin. There was something quite icy and sinister about the look Reid exchanged with Strauss. Hotch gulped when he realized he was looking at the face of Unsub-Spencer.

“Yes, ma’am,” Reid replied finally, and not without a thick layer of sarcasm.

Hotch took Spencer by his good arm and dragged him out of the assistant director’s office.

When they closed the door to Strauss’s office, they found the rest of the team waiting for them. Reid put a hand to his chest and sat down on the desk next to Rossi. Together they listened to their racing hearts and breathed heavily.

“Everything okay?” Prentiss hardly dared to whisper the words.

“We got off with a warning,” Hotch whispered, tucking the paper close to his chest. “Reid? Sioux City? Oklahoma City? What were you talking about?”

“Oh…” Rossi rumbled, a smile taking his face again. 

“Dave?” Hotch looked to him when Reid wouldn’t answer.

“Well-played, Dr. Reid,” Rossi nodded, patting Reid’s left arm. 

“Ouch,” Spencer whimpered.

“I’ll see what’s on the desk for today,” JJ said, heading towards her office. Morgan took to his desk and turned on his computer. Prentiss did as well, but not before booting Rossi and Reid and their butts off her desktop.


End file.
